Provincial

On Monday, the Law Amendments Committee sent Bill 85, which grants new powers to the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM), back to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly without amendment. One of the powers Bill 85 will grant the CBRM is the ability to enter into a 99-year lease, which our mayorRead More

When Municipal Affairs Minister (and Sydney-Whitney Pier MLA) Derek Mombourquette first expressed the notion that the province could find a way to facilitate the CBRM’s port project without rushing through a “phase one” CBRM Charter focused entirely on the deal, I thought it was a good sign. I was soRead More

Welcome to this week’s installment of “Where’s Cecil?” my ongoing effort to keep track of Mayor Cecil Clarke’s campaign appearances to judge just how much time he’s taking from his day job to travel the province in pursuit of the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia. I’m focusingRead More

Remember I told you about the provincial government subsidizing the wages paid by Marine Recycling Corporation to some of its workers? The Ontario-based shipbreaking company operating out of Sydport is benefiting from a program called New Opportunities for Work (NOW) which, according to the Department of Labour and Advanced TrainingRead More

Unlike David Johnson’s March 23rd rhetorical spin-doctoring CB Post article citing me as an ill-founded separatist, I do indeed retort with a bold vision forward for Cape Breton Island (CBI), rooted in sound legal principles and a viable political structure which, to succeed, needs to be shaped and implemented by CapeRead More

I am trying to keep track of Mayor Cecil Clarke’s campaign appearances to judge just how much time he’s taking from his day job to travel the province in pursuit of the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia. I’m focusing on events scheduled for weekdays during businessRead More

As rural Nova Scotians are left trying to economically survive on their own, it should be noted that over the past two decades (1999-2019) the Nova Scotia government received over $30,000,000,000 ($30 billion) in equalization payments from the federal government. Based on government data – some of which the governmentRead More

Mayor Cecil Clarke and the CBRM council will meet port promoter Albert Barbusci on Wednesday afternoon in what was supposed to have been a secret session between 1:30 PM and 3:30 PM at the Holiday Inn. Barbusci, of Sydney Harbour Investment Partners (SHIP), flew into Sydney Monday night, according toRead More

Discovering, thanks to the reporting of Rick Grant, that the CBRM mayor and council are holding a secret meeting today with port developer Albert Barbusci sends a chill up my spine. The meeting is being held at the Holiday Inn to avoid the bother of calling a special in cameraRead More

The Big Pond RV Park debate (which, as the Allman Brothers would say, is over but ain’t through) raised a lot of interesting questions for me, about everything from the purpose of public consultation to the role of the Nova Scotia Utilities and Review Board (UARB) to the responsibility ofRead More